Playing sports in childhood can often be a life-changing experience. It offers opportunities for connection, for exercise, for learning new things, and perhaps most importantly — for fun. But participating in sports can also be costly.
Sports for Kids Timmins is a local charity that helps children between ages four and 18 from low-income families participate in organized sports and other physical activities — an opportunity that Colleen Landers, who is the president of the charity, believes should be afforded to every child.
“I do what I do because I can tell you we have made a huge difference in many children’s lives. We have helped children to be able to feel good about themselves, to be able to be physically active, to be able to share with their friends that they play a sport too. And they feel, I think, better about themselves all around,” Landers says.
Landers, a retired registered nurse, has been involved with Sports for Kids since it launched in 2002 as a chapter of KidSport Canada. The decision to transition to a local charity came about for many reasons, not least of which was because they wanted to better maintain relationships with and give back to local businesses. It also gave them freedom to support a wider range of people than they could have done as part of a national organization.
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“There are some sports that they did not designate as an organized sport, like dance and some others like a gym membership. So, we as a board made a decision to go on our own,” Landers says.
“I think it’s the best decision we’ve ever made. We’ve been able to raise our income thresholds to help more people. We were able to take on dance and gym memberships and some other sports that we felt would help children, particularly some teenagers who may not want to go to an organized sport, but a gym membership is just fantastic,” she says.
In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, Sports for Kids has been very busy. This year so far, they have hit 127 applicants and given about $41,000 to families in need, which Landers says is the most the charity has ever given.
“There are some times when I look at those paystubs and I look at those social assistance stubs and I don’t know how people feed their children. I really don’t know how they manage with the rent and everything else. And I think anybody in Timmins who does not think that there are people living on very, very tight budgets … they’ve got their head in the sand,” Landers says.
In the last five years, Sports for Kids has increased its income threshold for applicants by $10,000. Next year, they plan to increase it again by another $5,000.
“We want to help the working poor. Someone who is making minimum wage and trying to support their children won’t be able to put them in sport,” she says.
“If you can help one child, I really believe that sport makes a difference in a child’s life. To me, that is worth every hour I give. You can’t put a value on that.”
On July 16, Sports for Kids will have its first annual Charity Fun Golf Tournament at the Hollinger Golf Club. Team registration for the tournament is still open, and all proceeds raised will go to the charity.
